Chapter Twenty-Five
“S
o far, so good,” Libby said as she carried one of her no-bake pumpkin cheesecakes toward the door leading into the front room of the station. She was talking not about the way her dessert had turned out but about how dating Benny had been going. She reminded herself several times a day that a relationship with him wasn’t smart, but then she would hear Victoria telling her that she was a stick-in-the-mud.
“No!” She shook her head. “I’ve faced that issue, and I’m not thinking about it anymore.”
When she opened the door into the front room, she expected Fancy to hop down off the sofa, but the dog just opened one eye for a few seconds and then closed it again. Evidently, the long walk to the river that afternoon had exhausted the poor little thing.
Opal waved from across the room where she was putting ice in glasses. “You ready to discuss the book we read? It’s kind of about you and Benny.”
“Friends to lovers is the trope tonight,” Minilee reminded her. “That’s the story of you and Benny, for sure.”
Libby set her cheesecake on the counter and nodded. They could think what they wanted, but the truth was that, right then, it was friends to dating. The lovers part had not happened yet. “I enjoyed reading the book a lot. Did y’all think it was a romance or a women’s fiction?”
“Shhh ...” Opal shushed her. “We can ask if you are ready to talk about the book, but we have to save the questions until after supper.”
“But that’s a good question to ask,” Minilee said. “And we’ll definitely dive right into that discussion.”
“We’re here!” Ilene called out.
Sally carried a box into the room and set it on the counter. “I brought a lasagna, a salad, and some of my famous hot rolls for supper.”
“I made the salad,” Ilene said, then giggled.
“She sprinkled the croutons on the top after I finished making it,” Sally argued.
“That’s the most important part of any salad,” Ilene told her.
Libby peeled back the aluminum foil from the top of a long casserole dish. “Want me to carry this to the table?”
“Yes, and thank you,” Sally answered.
Libby used two hot pads to carry the steaming-hot food. “This smells so good. I could eat Italian food for breakfast without even heating it up.”
“So can Tatum,” Sally said. “I made a small one for her to have tonight when she comes home from wherever she’s going with her friends.”
“I heard she had come back to Grant,” Minilee said as she brought glasses of iced tea to the table. “What happened to her getting a job in the big city?”
“Benny wouldn’t give her a reference,” Sally answered. “At least, that’s her excuse. They probably did a drug test and she failed it, if the truth be told. In my opinion—which doesn’t matter one bit to her—she should have stayed in the service and made a career of it, but what do I know?” Sally shrugged. “I’m just an old lady who lets her come back whenever she has no place else to go. I realize her faults, but she’s family.”
Opal patted her on the shoulder and then sat down. “You got to do what your heart tells you to do or else you can’t live with yourself. Looks like we all need a night of good food, a good book, and good friends.”
“This is like a little Las Vegas,” Minilee said. “What we talk about here stays here.”
Libby wondered if that meant she shouldn’t discuss anything that had to do with Benny, but she didn’t ask. She pulled out a chair and took a seat. Opal said a short grace, then Sally served up squares of lasagna.
“How do you handle being so angry with Tatum and then welcoming her back into your home whenever she shows up on your doorstep?” Minilee asked Sally.
“It raises my blood pressure, for sure,” Sally admitted. “But my granny often told me that my job was to do what was right, no matter what it costs me. I kept Tatum until she started school so that her mama and daddy could work. She was so cute back then that I didn’t ever tell her no. Her parents felt guilty for leaving her, so they didn’t discipline her. Then her parents sent her to live with me her senior year in high school because she got caught with whiskey on the school grounds and got expelled. She was a holy terror by then, but I believed her when she said that mean girls had put the liquor in her locker.”
“Are you saying that you are to blame for her attitude?” Opal asked.
“If you are, I don’t believe it,” Ilene argued. “Tatum is a grown woman. She might have been a handful when she was younger, but she needs to hold herself accountable and not blame everyone else.”
Libby listened to them disagree with Sally for a moment or two. Then she went into her own little bubble and thought about what Ilene had just said. Victoria had made sure that she was held accountable for every single mistake she ever made. But what kept looping back around to Libby was what Ilene had said about not blaming anyone else. She had just done that very thing when she told Benny she wasn’t sure she would make a good mother because of her biological mother and Victoria’s influence. She—not Victoria or Liza—could control the type of mother she would make.
“Is something wrong with the lasagna?” Sally asked. “You have only taken one bite.”
Her question jerked Libby away from her own thoughts. “No, it’s delicious. If you give out recipes, I’d love to know how you make it. I was just thinking about a conversation I had with Benny.”
“They’re dating now,” Minilee announced.
“Oh, really?” Sally’s face lit up in a bright smile.
Ilene laid her fork down. “Tell us more.”
Libby quickly shoveled a forkful of lasagna into her mouth and held up a finger.
“She needs to get her supper eaten, or we’ll be discussing our book until midnight,” Opal declared. “So me and Minilee will fill you in on this case of friends to lovers while she cleans up her plate.”
“Benny announced that they were dating last Tuesday when we went to the farmers’ market. They’ve been on a couple of buying trips together—and they rode the carousel, not once but two times around,” Minilee said and held up two fingers.
“He says that he’s cutting down on the number of days that he travels and is spending more time at home. Last night after they came home from work, they took the dogs for a long walk near the river and didn’t come home until after dark,” Opal added.
“And they’ve been eating supper together almost every night,” Minilee chimed back in. “We invited them over here for supper on Thursday, and they were holding hands all the way across the road.”
Sally clapped. “Real-life friends to lovers.”
Apparently, what happened in Sawmill did not stay in Sawmill. Not when Opal and Minilee were on watch-and-report duty. Libby wondered how much Sally would tell Tatum about what they talked about over the supper table that night.
She vowed that she would not let that woman or any other one cause her grief—not from her past, her bloodlines—or lack of them—or even the voices that popped into her head. She might still talk to herself on occasion, but she was a grown woman. As such, she would control her own future.
“Friends to dating right now,” Libby said with a smile. “We are taking things slow. We’ve only known each other a few weeks.”
Sally let out a long sigh. “I wish Tatum was more like you. She wants everything right now.” She snapped her fingers.
“Instant gratification,” Ilene said with a nod. “All this internet stuff has brought up a generation of kids that want everything right now, this minute.” She snapped her fingers, too. “They don’t want to learn to cook because they can pop a burrito in the microwave and have dinner in less than a minute.”
“And forget about having the patience to garden,” Opal said. “They won’t even take time to open up a can, much less gather their own food and fix it.”
“We won’t live to see it,” Minilee said, “but in the next couple of generations, I predict that they won’t be taught to eat their vegetables at all. They’ll just eat supplements, and folks will grow weaker from not having good nutrition.”
Libby let their ranting go in one ear and out the other as she finished her supper. “Are y’all ready for dessert and then the book discussion?” she finally asked.
“Yes, we are,” Sally said. “Let’s put an end to this conversation about things we can’t do diddly-squat about. I loved the book, but I couldn’t decide if it was a romance or women’s fiction.”
Libby brought the cheesecake to the table and cut it into slices. “That was going to be my first question. I liked the romance, and that Lacey and Delmond went from being friends to lovers, but I felt like her friends helping her get through her past was also a key part of her growth and finding happiness.”
“Yep, her friends were the ones who helped her see value in herself,” Sally said.
“But she was the only one that could take that next step with Delmond,” Ilene said. “This cheesecake is wonderful. A perfect dessert after a heavy supper.”
“Did you have a favorite quote from the book?” Opal asked.
“Yep,” Libby answered. “‘When opportunity knocks, invite it in for cake and sweet tea. Don’t wait until it’s a mile down the road and chase after it.’”
“I liked that one, too,” Minilee said, “but my favorite was ‘Trust your heart.’”
“Mine was when they said their wedding vows, and Delmond told Lacey that she was the other half of his soul,” Opal said.
They all turned toward Sally, who shrugged, sighed, and finally said, “I liked that part when Lacey told Delmond that she was afraid she would ruin their friendship if they took the next step into a serious relationship.”
“Didn’t the way the author described the love scene bring back memories?” Minilee asked.
Sally covered a giggle with her veined and wrinkled hand. “It made me think of the first time me and my late husband made love.”
“Where was that?” Ilene asked.
“In the back seat of his car, down by the Red River. A full moon just about filled the whole back glass. I remember thinking that it was shining down on us both,” Sally answered. “What did it make the rest of you think about?”
“My wedding night,” Ilene answered. “I was scared out of my mind that I wouldn’t do it right.”
“Me too,” Opal agreed. “But I wasn’t scared.”
“Floyd and I weren’t married when we had sex the first time, and I liked it. I used to start an argument with him just so we could go to the bedroom and make up,” Minilee said.
They all turned to Libby. She raised one shoulder and let the feeling of affection and warmth wrap around her like a thick shawl on a winter evening. “I love your stories and all the help you have given me, but I can’t comment. The only thought I had after that scene was that it was such an emotional and beautiful time for Lacey, I hoped she and Delmond lived to see their fiftieth anniversary.”
Own your sexuality. Dolly’s voice was so loud that she jumped.
Benny and Elvis watched the sun set from a lawn chair between his trailer and the station while the book club meeting was going on. For the past week, he and Libby had been together almost every day—either working in the store or simply enjoying each other’s company over supper on the front porch. While she spent Thursday morning getting everything done in the office, he had brought several pieces from the warehouse into the store.
Dusk had settled and a few stars were sparkling in the sky when Sally and Ilene left the station. A few minutes later, Opal and Minilee walked across the road. He noticed that Libby and Fancy were standing on the front porch, so Elvis headed that way.
“Got any of that cheesecake left?” Benny asked as he walked up on the porch.
“They ate the one I took to the meeting, but the recipe makes two, so we have a whole one to ourselves,” she answered as she sat down beside him.
He scooted his chair closer to hers, draped an arm around her shoulders, and drew her close to his side. “How did the meeting go?”
“Great,” Libby said. “Enlightening. Thought provoking. At least, that’s what I got from the book and from listening to all of the opinions the other four had.”
“Didn’t you tell me that it was a friends-to-lovers trope?” he asked.
She laid her head on his shoulder. “That’s right.”
“Think we’ll ever get that far in our relationship?”
“Yep.” Libby raised her head high enough to kiss him on the cheek and then snuggled closer to his neck. “I expect that we’ll both know when the time is right for that step.”
“I more than just like you, you know,” Benny whispered close to her ear.
“Seems like what started off as like and respect has grown for both of us, hasn’t it?”
Fancy strained at the leash, so Libby stood up. “Want to go back to the apartment and have a piece of cheesecake for a snack?”
“Yes, ma’am,” he answered and took her free hand in his.
Elvis followed right along beside Fancy, as if he were protecting her from any evil hawks or snakes, until they reached the door, but then he stopped and lapped up some water. Benny opened the door for Libby, and she unclipped the leash from Fancy’s collar. The little dog ran across the room and through the open door into the apartment.
Libby flipped off the porch light and the overhead lights in the front room. When they entered the apartment, she closed the door. “Cheesecake or kisses first?”
“Kisses win that question every time,” Benny said as he drew her into his arms and found her lips in the semidark room.
“I feel like a teenager sneaking around for make-out sessions,” she whispered when Benny backed her up toward the sofa and pulled her down onto his lap. “Opal and Minilee are right across the street.”
Benny cupped her face in his hands. “We are consenting adults. It’s no one’s business what we do but ours.”
Libby pulled away.
“Are you okay?” he asked. “Did I hurt you?”
“No, I just got a message that was loud and clear.” She stood up and took his hand in hers. “Friends to lovers. I’m ready if you are.”
“Yes, my darlin’, I am,” Benny said.
She gave his hand a gentle tug, and he stood up.
“But we don’t have to hurry. We’ve got all night,” he said.
“I guess we’ll have dessert later?”
“Mmmm,” he said as he buried his face in her neck. “Much later. Much, much later.”
She tugged his T-shirt up over his head. “I like that idea.”